I’m assuming that since the Compressed Gas Association wrote the industry standard for handling gas cylinders (that OSHA’s using), they’re not only interested in personnel safety, but also in minimizing any excessive rough handling of their gas cylinders. Todd Perkins commented that he was aware of a gas cylinder that remained in service for 110 years. I’m guessing that particular gas cylinder wasn’t chained up outdoors to too many trees, and it wasn’t kicked around in the street over concrete curbs very often.
E
From: DCHAS-L Discussion List [mailto:dchas-l**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU]On Behalf Of NEAL LANGERMAN
Sent: Thursday, April 23, 2015 1:42 PM
To: DCHAS-L**At_Symbol_Here**MED.CORNELL.EDU
Subject: Re: [DCHAS-L] what to do - gas cylinder safety
I will continue to play devil’s advocate …
Consider what we do not know about the work site
Would a cart increase the mass control hazards because of terrain?
What additional security or hazard reduction would you get by placing cylinders on a cart and chaining cart to a solid object, eg a tree?
Opinion
Keep an open mind and look for ways to reduce operational risk while keeping the work task reasonable … and acceptable to the workers
Interesting case for this group to look at … many of us forget there is a world outside our labs; no criticism, just a reality of our intense work worlds
Stay safe out there!
nl
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ACSafety has a new address:
NEAL LANGERMAN, Ph.D.
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SAN DIEGO CA 92195
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Good question.
This is the compressed version of the answer:
Document Name: CGA P- 1 : Safe Handling of Compressed Gases
CFR Section(s) : 29 CFR 1 9 1 0. 1 1 (b)
Standards Body: Compressed Gas Association
3.2.6
Use suitable hand truck, fork truck, roll platform or similar device with cylinder firmly secured for transporting
and unloading.
Eric Clark, MS, CHMM, CCHO
Safety Officer, Public Health Scientist III
Los Angeles County Public Health Laboratory
Why is it ill advised?
Nitrogen is used to purge and dry some conduit
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The information contained in this message is privileged and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee or agent responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please notify us immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer.
ACSafety has a new address:
NEAL LANGERMAN, Ph.D.
ADVANCED CHEMICAL SAFETY, Inc.
PO Box 152329
SAN DIEGO CA 92195
011(619) 990-4908 (phone, 24/7)
www.chemical-safety.com
We no longer support FAX.
Please contact me before sending any packages or courier delivery. The address for those items is:
5340 Caminito Cachorro
San Diego CA 92105
I was in New York City, recently, and came across two liquid nitrogen dewars on a street corner. One had a regulator on it and tubing running into a manhole in the street. I think the dewars had been there awhile as one had been tagged with graffiti. No one in sight that might have anything to do with the dewars.
Gas cylinders get “managed” in creative ways, it would seem. I guess chaining to a tree satisfies the “prevent from falling” requirement. Rolling along the pavement – ill-advised, certainly. I wonder what they were using the nitrogen for.
Debbie M. Decker, CCHO, ACS Fellow
Chair, Division of Chemical Health and Safety
University of California, Davis
(530)754-7964
(530)304-6728
dmdecker**At_Symbol_Here**ucdavis.edu
Birkett's hypothesis: "Any chemical reaction
that proceeds smoothly under normal conditions,
can proceed violently in the presence of an idiot."
On Tue, Apr 21, 2015 at 5:41 PM, Leslie Coop <lcoop**At_Symbol_Here**willamette.edu> wrote:
A company doing work on campus chained thee nitrogen compressed gas cylinders to a tree in front of a dormitory. And left them there, for several days. Two were capped, but one of them had a regulator attached, with tubing going into a hole in the ground.
One day, two of this company's employees were seen removing one of the cylinders from the tree (one with a cap). They lay in cylinder on its side on the ground, rolled it with their feet to the curb, then rolled it off the curb and into the street to their truck. There, they picked it up by hand and manually lifted it into their truck.
Leslie Coop, MS, CCHO, CHMM
Chemical Hygiene Officer/ Stockroom Manager
Willamette University - 900 State Str - Salem, Oregon 97301
